Ely Ratner

Ely Ratner is the Maurice R. Greenberg senior fellow for China studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His work focuses on U.S.-China relations, regional security in East Asia, and U.S. national security policy.

From 2015 to 2017, Ratner served as the deputy national security advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, covering the global portfolio with particular focus on Asia and China policy, the South China Sea, North Korea, and U.S. alliances in Asia. From 2011 to 2012, while a CFR international affairs fellow, he served in the office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs at the State Department covering China’s external relations in Asia. He also previously worked in the U.S. Senate on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and in the office of Senator Joe Biden. Outside of government, Ratner has worked as a senior fellow and deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security and as an associate political scientist at the RAND Corporation.

Ratner has testified before Congress and published widely on U.S.-China relations and U.S. national security strategy in Asia. His commentary and research have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Quarterly, The National Interest, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Chinese Journal of International Politics.

Ratner received his BA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and children.

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